Sunday, 3 March 2013

The Angelic Visions of Botticini and Botticelli

Botticini’s Assumption was used as the altarpiece in
the burial chapel in S. Pier Maggiore, Florence. It shows Matteo Palmieri, a
civil servant, depicted kneeling on the left; on the other side is his widow,
Niccolosa, clothed in the garments of the Benedictine order, who owned the
church. The wide vista view behind Matteo shows both Florence and Fiesole, as
well as a farm that was his property. At the rear of his widow are hamlets of Val
d'Elsa, a portion of her dowry. According to Rolf Bagemihl, all the versions of
Matteo’s will reflect the complete trust that he placed in his wife, and she
was involved in the only agreement about the chapel made in 1476. The painting
took Botticini two years or more to finish, and its iconography was closely
guided by Palmieri’s theological ideas. [1]
Palmieri was a noted Humanist who had progressive ideas, not always
accommodated by the Church. His La città di vita ("The City of Life”)
of 1465 was pronounced heretical, and after his death his body was removed from
the Church of San Pier Maggiore and an effigy of the humanist burnt at Cortona.
Palmieri’s heresy “was that was that the souls of all incarnate humanity derive
from the angels, in particular that third part of the angelic host which took
neutral ground during the Fall of the Rebel Angels”.[2]
Angels are ranged in nine choirs, divided into three hierarchies. The highest
of these represent Councillors (Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones), the middle
represent Governors (Dominions, Virtues and Powers); then follow the Ministers
(Principalities, Archangels and Angels). Unusually, saints have been
incorporated into the ranks of angels, an addition probably reflecting
Palmieri's theological speculations. Interestingly, given the similarity of
their names, Vasari assigned the picture to Botticelli, not Botticini, and he
said that the more famous painter and Palmieri were condemned.

It is instructive to compare Botticini’s altarpiece with
Botticelli’s Mystic Nativity, a painting from his late period, about
1500 executed during a time of great religious ferment in Florence. The
religious trouble was caused by the activities of Girolamo Savonarola who led a
popular uprising in the city. Note that this painting is entitled a Mystical
Nativity, and is not a conventional representation of the birth of Christ.
What is also strange about this scene is the size of Mary, who almost towers up
into the roof of the manger; the extraordinary size of Mary probably refers to
Ecclesia, or the Church itself. Botticelli’s altarpiece is also apocalyptic
because it refers to the last days of humankind before the second coming of
Christ and the Last Judgement. In fact, it might be taken to refer to that
subject since the inscription in Greek on the painting talks about the Book of
Revelation as written of by St John the Evangelist. The inscription at the top
reads: “I Alessandro made this picture at the conclusion of the year 1500 in
the troubles of Italy in the half time after the time according to the 11th
[chapter] of Saint John in the second woe of the Apocalypse during the loosing
of the devil for three and a half years then he will be chained in the 12th
[chapter] and we shall see him burying himself as in this picture.” The theme
of this altarpiece is mystical, hence its name. It is a very good example of
complex theology expressed in a symbolic language, and Botticelli could not
even have begun to conceive it without the influence of the preacher who
believed that Florence should be scourged and cleansed in order to be saved. This
apocalyptic mood is also captured in one of Botticelli’s last pictures- the Crucifixion
at Harvard.